Recall campaigns in Wisconsin
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Legend:
= The recall target was recalled by voters.
= When a recall vote was held, voters rejected the attempt to recall the politician (that is, voters decided to keep/retain the targeted politician).
= The recall effort did not collect enough signatures to force a recall vote.
= The targeted politician resigned after a recall campaign was begun, and before the vote on the recall would have taken place.
= A judge prevented the recall from going forward.
= A recall election is scheduled.
Gubernatorial
- See also: List of gubernatorial recalls
Scott Walker: Statewide
Rebeca Kleefisch: Statewide
State legislative
- See also: State legislative recalls
State Senate: Scott Fitzgerald
State Senate: Terry Moulton
State Senate: Van Wanggaard
State Senate: Pam Galloway
State Senate: Bob Jauch
Mayors
Sheboygan: Bob Ryan
Elmwood Park: Audrey Viau
Muskego: Kathy Chiaverotti
City councils
Mayors
- See also: Mayoral recalls
State legislative
State Senate: Dan Kapanke
State Senate: Randy Hopper
State Senate: Alberta Darling
State Senate: Robert Cowles
State Senate: Dave Hansen
State Senate: Jim Holperin
State Senate: Sheila Harsdorf
State Senate: Robert Wirch
State Senate: Luther Olsen
City councils
- See also: City council recalls
Tom Spellman recall, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin (2009)
Shannon Hiller recall, Mercer School Board, Wisconsin (2009)
Mike Cone recall, Baraboo, Wisconsin, 2009
Wally Krenzke recall, Price County, Wisconsin, 2009
Recall of Monroe County, Wisconsin Supervisors, 2009
Village trustees recall, Luck, Wisconsin, 2009
Scott Klein recall, Pewaukee, Wisconsin, 2009
Jim Doyle recall, Wisconsin, 2009
Karen Ordinans recall (2002)
Kathleen Arciszewski recall (2002)
Tom Ament recall, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, 2002
Ballotpedia's 2012 Recall Analysis
| State | Targeted officials | Recalled | Retained | Resigned |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arkansas | 9 | 2 | 4 | 0 |
| Alaska | 8 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Arizona | 19 | 6 | 4 | 2 |
| California | 87 | 11 | 4 | 6 |
| Colorado | 16 | 2 | 6 | 2 |
| District of Columbia | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Florida | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Georgia | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Idaho | 10 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Kansas | 10 | 5 | 4 | 0 |
| Louisiana | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Maine | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Massachusetts | 7 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Michigan | 79 | 5 | 13 | 3 |
| Minnesota | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Missouri | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Montana | 4 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Nebraska | 9 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Nevada | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| New Jersey | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| New Mexico | 7 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| North Dakota | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Ohio | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Oklahoma | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Oregon | 24 | 3 | 8 | 4 |
| Rhode Island | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Tennessee | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Texas | 17 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Washington | 7 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| West Virginia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Wisconsin | 12 | 3 | 4 | 1 |
| Total | 370 | 54 | 54 | 24 |
2012 Elections preview: Control of Wisconsin Senate to be determined by recalls
By: Greg Janetka
MADISON, Wisconsin: The fate of three incumbent Republican state senators, along with the balance of power in the chamber, will be determined tomorrow as one fiercely partisan chapter in Wisconsin's history winds to a close. A fourth senator, Pam Galloway (R), was also recalled, but resigned, leaving her seat vacant. Polls will be open from 7 a.m to 8 p.m CST.[1] Sample ballots are available on the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board's website.
Six recalls took place in 2011, with Democrats picking up two seats. The Senate is currently tied 16-16, with one vacancy. Thus, the recalls will determine who controls the chamber.[2] The recalls were sparked by collective-bargaining reforms passed by Republicans in 2011.[3]
| Party | As of June 2013 | |
|---|---|---|
| Democratic Party | 15 | |
| Republican Party | 18 | |
| Total | 33 | |
With Gov. Scott Walker (R) and Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch also standing for recall, GAB is predicting voter turnout between 60-65 percent - well above the number who showed up for the 2010 general election. According to GAB, the highest turnout in the last 50 years for a November gubernatorial election was 52.4 percent way back in 1962.[4]
Here is an overview of the senate races set to take place on tomorrow.
Campaign to recall Wisconsin Gov. Walker announces half of necessary signatures already collected
By: Greg Janetka
MADISON, Wisconsin: Less than two weeks after starting their campaign to recall Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) from office, organizers announced on Monday that they have already collected over 300,000 signatures - more than half of the 540,208 necessary to force a recall election.[5] The exact number of signatures, however, cannot be independently verified. United Wisconsin organizers say they will not be turning in their signatures until the deadline on January 17, 2012. The group did not say how many signatures they collected in their efforts to recall Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch, but that the totals were close.[6]
Since the beginning of the campaign, Walker has been actively campaigning as if he expects a recall to take place. He has so far issued two TV commercials - the first featuring a school board member stating Walker's reforms reduced costs allowing more money to go to classrooms, while the second features a high school teacher who says she's "not much on recalls." Additionally, the national conservative group Americans for Prosperity teamed up with The MacIver Institute to air ads in support of Walker.
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Democrats have not yet announced a candidate that would run against Walker if the recall effort is successful. Names floated as possible candidates include U.S. Senator Herb Kohl, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, former U.S. Representative Dave Obey[7], U.S. Rep. Ron Kind[8], Wisconsin Firefighters Union President Mahlon Mitchel, Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, state Rep. Peter Barca, and State Sen. Jon Erpenbach[9]. Many observers turned to former U.S. Senator Russ Feingold, but he has repeatedly stated that he will not run.[10]
While many campaigns have occasional reports of incidents such as signs going missing or being vandalized, the recall effort has been rife with these since the beginning. The first day of signature collection saw a rock with an anti-recall message tied to it thrown through the window of a cafe in Madison. Since then a number of volunteers have received anonymous death threats.[11][12] and there have been reports of petitions being torn up[13] and stolen[14], something that may be part of a coordinated effort. An anonymous Facebook group called Operation Burn Notice has been set up as with the goal of destroying petitions.[15] In response, the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board has reiterated that providing fraudulent information or destroying a recall petition is a felony, while the organization One Wisconsin Now has offered a $10,000 reward for reports of signed petitions being destroyed.[16] So far no one has been charged in any of the incidents.
Four recall campaigns targeting Republican state Senators Pam Galloway, Scott Fitzgerald, Terry Moulton and Van Wanggaard are also ongoing.
If sufficient signatures are turned in by January 17, the earliest a recall could take place would be March 27. However, petition challenges and lawsuits could significantly delay that date.[17]
2011 Wisconsin recall elections come to a close with two incumbent Democrats retaining seats
By Geoff Pallay and Greg Janetka
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MADISON, Wisconsin: Two Democratic incumbent senators in Wisconsin both held their ground tonight, defeating Republican challengers in recall elections.
The results mark the end of the dramatic summer recalls in Wisconsin, which saw two Republican incumbents knocked off and leaving the GOP with a 17-16 partisan advantage in the Senate.
In the District 12 recall, incumbent Jim Holperin defeated GOP challenger Kim Simac.
| August 16 Recall - District 12[18] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidates | Votes | Percent | ||
Jim Holperin (D) 
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30,450 | 55.12% | ||
| Kim Simac (R) | 24,682 | 44.67% | ||
| Scattering | 110 | 0.19% | ||
Holperin won comfortably by 10 points. In 2008, when Holperin first won election to the Wisconsin State Senate, he won by just two points in a tight race with Tom Tiffany.
Candidates make last-minute push in advance of last two Wisconsin Senate recall elections next Tuesday
By Geoff Pallay and Greg Janetka
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MADISON, Wisconsin: The results from last Tuesday’s recall elections are clear - Republicans held on to four senate seats, while Democrats knocked off two incumbents. Yet the battle over who can claim to have won the larger victory - and just what all those millions of dollars that poured into the state actually achieved - rages on.
John Fund, senior editor of American Spectator, notes that if Democrats lose one of the recalls next Tuesday, they will have spent $35 million to pick up one senate seat. As collective bargaining served as the catalyst for the recalls, most of the money that poured in to support Democrats came from union groups, yet was not actually used to address the issue. Fund said: "It was astonishing to see labor unions spend $35 million of their members’ dues money to beat back Scott Walker’s labor reforms. But the astonishing thing is that for all the money they spent, mostly unsuccessfully, their ads against the Republican incumbents they were trying to recall never talked about the labor law reforms."[19]
Michael Fletcher, an economics correspondent with the Washington Post, referred to the recalls as "an existential fight," for the unions, explaining, "The unions had to push back. Public employees are now the heart of organized labor. They also are a mainstay of Democratic support. So, from their point of view, the fight--whatever its cost--was essential."[20]
Following the results, We Are Wisconsin, the leader of the union groups, issued a statement that framed the recalls as a success. "The fact we've accomplished as much in six months as had been achieved in the 85 years since recalls were put in the Wisconsin state Constitution is a stunning rebuke to Scott Walker's extreme attacks on middle class working families," the statement read.[21]
Meanwhile, other organizations and pundits on all sides, along with both parties, continue to work to positively spin the results. Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Mike Tate called the results "an accomplishment of historic proportions,"[22] while state Republican Party Executive Director Stephan Thompson said, "The assault that was unleashed on our state by national unions and special interest groups has been defeated by the will of the taxpayers to move our state forward, and put the needs of Wisconsin families above union demands."[23]
Republican State Leadership Committee President Chris Jankowski, called the night a, "tremendous victory," that foreshadows more Republican victories in the coming years;[24] similarly seeing the results as a sign of Democratic victories to come, Michael Sargeant, Executive Director of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, said, "What started as 14 Democrats standing up for working families has grown into a national movement to fight back against GOP radicalism!"[25]
An article in The Economist took a more cynical approach to diagnosing the overall winner, using the word "silly" to describe the recalls themselves. The author wrote: "At a very peculiar election, on an unusual date with an atypical electorate in a normally fairly blue state, Democrats did quite well but not brilliantly. Stop the presses."[26]
For his part, Gov. Walker stressed a renewed bipartisanship - "I reached out to the leadership of both the Republicans and Democrats in the Assembly and State Senate. I shared with them that I believe we can work together to grow jobs and improve our state. In the days ahead I look forward to working with legislators of all parties to grow jobs for Wisconsin and move our state forward."[27]
- ↑ Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, "Recall Elections June 5," accessed June 4, 2012
- ↑ Channel 3000, "Wisconsin Democrats counting on recall elections to win state Senate control," May 26, 2012
- ↑ Washington Post, "Wisconsin recall: Two potential surprises," June 4, 2012
- ↑ Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, "Voter Turnout Estimated at 60 to 65 percent for June 5 Recall Election," May 29, 2012
- ↑ WTAQ, "Recall Walker groups says it has 300,000 signatures," November 28, 2011
- ↑ Washington Post, "Effort to recall Wis. Gov. Scott Walker says it has more than half of needed signatures," November 28, 2011
- ↑ Talking Points Memo, "Wisconsin Dems Kicking Off Walker Recall Effort Tuesday," November 14, 2011
- ↑ Green Bay Press Gazette, "Walker opponent has not been named yet," November 27, 2011
- ↑ FOX 6 Now, "Political Lowe-down: Who would run against Walker should recall election occur?," November 17, 2011
- ↑ WisPolitics, "More than 25,000 gather at Capitol rally to recall Walker, Feingold reiterates he won't run against guv," November 19, 2011
- ↑ The Badger Herald, "Recall organizer faces death threat," November 21, 2011
- ↑ Channel 3000, "Walker Opponents Plagued By Threats, Thefts," November 21, 2011
- ↑ Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Recall petition destroyed on Edgewood College campus," November 22, 2011
- ↑ WQOW, "Volunteers claim someone stole petition," November 22, 2011
- ↑ Caledonia Patch, "Pro-Recall Group Outs Facebook Page That Boasts About Destroying Signatures," November 22, 2011
- ↑ Badger Herald, "Group offers $10K for petition crime tips," November 27, 2011
- ↑ Huffington Post, "Scott Walker Fights Recall Effort With Early Campaign," November 27, 2011
- ↑ Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, "District 12 recall election results," accessed August 26, 2011
- ↑ Newsmax, "John Fund:Unions Spent $35 Million To Defeat Wisconsin Gov. Walker - and Lost," August 10, 2011
- ↑ Washington Post, "The aftermath of the Wisconsin recall election," August 10, 2011
- ↑ WisPolitics, "We Are Wisconsin:Statement of tonight’s recall elections," August 10, 2011
- ↑ WisPolitics, "WisDems:Tuesday’s results," August 10, 2011
- ↑ Republican Party of Wisconsin," August 10, 2011
- ↑ WisPolitics, "Republican State Leadership Committee: Statement on Wisconsin recall elections," August 10, 2011
- ↑ WisPolitics, "Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee:Historic," August 10, 2011
- ↑ The Economist "Don’t make too much of it," August 10, 2011
- ↑ WisPolitics, "Gov. Walker: Statement on election results," August 10, 2011
See also
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